US Government Issued $11 Million in Government Bonds Under New Tax Refund Savings Bond Program Last Year

Back in the fall of 2009, President Obama outlined a list of "common-sense steps" that would make it easier for US workers to save for their retirements.

One of the changes? Allowing people to request that their tax refund be sent as a government savings bond instead of a check.

This change was implemented in 2010. In order to receive a savings bond instead of a check, people simply had to check a box on their tax return.

This program was further enhanced in 2011, with people being able to name others (children, spouse, etc) as co-owners of the bonds.

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So how successful was this newly launched program in its first year?

To get the answer to this question, let's look at the GAO's (United States Government Accountability Office) audit of the consolidated financial statements of the US government for fiscal years 2010 and 2009.

On page 18 of the report from the GAO, there is a section titled "Tax Refund Savings Bond".

According to the GAO, "more than 22,368 requests" for savings bonds had been processed in 2010, resulting in a total of 98,230 Series I paper bonds being issued.

The total value of these bonds? $11,040,300.

According to the IRS, there were a total of 144,103,375 individual income tax returns filed in 2010.

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I'm not sure if this can be classified as "successful" or not, as I am not aware of the internal targets (if any) that were set by the US government prior to starting this bonds instead of checks campaign.